Are There Any Good Reasons to Not Fund the Wall?

Ground views of different Border Wall Prototypes as they take shape during the Wall Prototype Construction Project near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Photo by: Mani Albrecht

Writing at The American Spectator, David Catron details some of what he calls the “asinine” excuses opponents of the border wall have used to justify its currently unfunded state. He cites five, including:

By far the most hilarious contribution to this genre was made by rapper Talib Kweli Greene, who took to Twitter and offered wall supporters the following history lesson:

So, you’re unaware of the fact that nazi Germany had a wall called the Berlin Wall that was torn down in 1991 in order to foster humanity and diversity? Walls didn’t work for Nazis so why build them here? Build bridges not walls Nazi lover.

Last June, the Los Angeles Times published a column by Carolina Miranda titled, “What the dismantling of the Berlin Wall can teach us as Trump tries to build his wall.” The obvious answer is “absolutely nothing,” yet she conjured a comparison:

This year, Feb. 5 marked the day that the wall had been gone as long as it had been up — 10,316 days … the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall and its attendant Cold War legacies highlights the construction of walls elsewhere — such as the “big, fat, beautiful wall” President Trump wants for the US-Mexico border.

Other dumb analogies compare the border wall to various ancient barriers like Hadrian’s Wall. CNN published a particularly moronic piece on this subject. “The wall was finished in 128 AD, and 10 years later, Hadrian died.… Soon after the Roman’s power in the region started to decline, and in 410 AD the Roman rule ended.” As it happens, Hadrian’s Wall was built for military purposes, and served its purpose (slowing down sporadic incursions by the Picts) well. Moreover, Roman withdrawal from Britain had nothing to do with the wall or “declining power in the region.” They left to fight the Germans who were invading Italy.

A slightly less stupid, but equally ineffective argument to which the anti-wall crowd has inevitably reverted involves the claim that a physical barrier will damage the environment and doom certain flora and fauna to extinction. A gaggle of environmentalist zealots sued the government based on the claim that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, signed into law in 1996 by Bill Clinton to strengthen the nation’s immigration statutes, somehow violates the separation of powers established by the Constitution. If this seems a little thin to you, you are not alone. The Hill notes:

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from conservation and animal protection groups challenging the Trump administration’s power to bypass state and local environmental laws in building a border wall.… The justices did not provide any explanation for why they refused to hear the appeal.

Senate Democrats have made the absurd claim that it will cost $70 billion. If Trump’s puerile critics were serious people, they would produce a legitimate estimate and compare it to what illegal immigration is costing the taxpayer. Watchdog.org reports:

According to the most recent analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), one illegal immigrant living in America today costs U.S. citizen taxpayers about $8,075. In total, illegal aliens cost American taxpayers $116 billion annually.

Catron finishes up by telling it like it is:

So, Trump’s proposed border wall isn’t remotely analogous to anything done by the Nazis. And only someone illiterate concerning history would compare it to the Berlin Wall or Hadrian’s Wall. Likewise, it is impossible to make a legitimate environmental case against it, and anyone familiar with arithmetic can see that the cost of the wall will be dwarfed by the amount it will save the taxpayers. Nonetheless, these are just a few of the many absurd arguments made by the Democrats and the media against the wall. The true reason for their opposition is obvious, however. They need fraudulent votes from illegals to save their party.